The present invention relates to electronic trading, exchange, liquidation and bartering systems that allow users to trade or redeem reward points, such as those already accumulated in airline frequent flyer programs, into an account for redeeming products and services offered over a broad based communications system such as the Internet or interactive television. This would allow users to use their frequent flyer (or frequent car rental, frequent dining, etc.) points for products or services other than those which may be typically offered by the point sponsor. The points would be sold back or traded to the issuing entity or other third party. The system would also allow for purchase by users of points traded in by other users, such that points may be redistributed without incurring a transaction directly with the airline or other issuing entity.
The present invention also allows for manufacturers and distributors or traders of goods to put overstocked, discontinued, returned, or end of run products into a liquidation process that can be redeemed, purchased, traded or exchanged for reward points or similar value.
In order to attract and retain business customers, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, chain retailers, telecom providers, etc. have historically introduced frequency use programs that offer awards of “frequent flyer miles” or other such incentives schemes based on the distance traveled, amount of money spent, or use by that customer. Success has enabled airlines to modify the manner in which mileage was acquired to include travel related purchases by consumers. For example, a percentage of the dollar-based cost of a hotel stay may be awarded as mileage to a client account. Within the past several years, credit card companies or other retailers and etailers have co-branded credit cards in the name of airlines, oil companies, retailers, service companies, and the credit card company where each dollar spent using the card is recorded as a mile or unit of travel, reward point or similar value in the award program or some monetary value assigned by the issuer. These cards may additionally award bonus miles, points or other value in coordination with user purchases of preferred products or flights during preferred times. U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,870, FULLY INTEGRATED, ON-LINE INTERACTIVE FREQUENCY AND AWARD REDEMPTION PROGRAM, issued to Netcentives, Inc. on Jun. 30, 1998. The '870 patent provides a system whereby the user can make purchase of products over the Internet and receive award points, which are stored in an associated database. The user can subsequently view an award catalog to determine which awards he may be able to redeem based on the number of points in his account. This patent does not teach, however, the ability of a user to trade-in his points accumulated in a pre-existing frequent flyer account in order to make purchases of products from the award catalog or allow the points to be pooled with other programs in order to gain further purchasing power.
The ClickRewards program site appears to operate in the same fashion as that described in the '870 patent; i.e. it allows users to gain points (called “ClickMiles”) for making an online purchase of a product through an associated web site. For example, ClickMiles may be awarded for a purchase of Gap products at the Gap web site. The ClickMiles can ultimately be redeemed for frequent flyer miles, for example at one of several major airlines. Another web site, www.webflyer.com, is associated with ClickRewards and provides ClickMiles for purchasing frequent flyer-related goods, such as guidebooks.
The ClickMiles Reward Catalog allows the user to redeem the ClickMiles for merchandise in the alternative to frequent flyer miles. For example, a CD can be obtained from CDNow by redeeming 900 ClickMiles.
Although the ClickRewards program allows a user to redeem accumulated points for obtaining merchandise over the Internet, it does not allow for the redemption of frequent flyer miles from a pre-existing account to be traded for reward points.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,210, ATTENTION BROKERAGE, issued on Aug. 11, 1998 to CyberGold, Inc. The '210 patent describes a system that makes immediate payment to a user for paying attention to an advertisement or other “negatively priced” information distributed over the Internet. A special icon or other symbol displayed on a computer screen may represent compensation and allow users to choose whether they will view an ad or other negatively priced information and receive associated compensation. The points accumulated can then be used to purchase “positively priced information” or products.
The CyberGold web site, www.cybergold.com, describes an “earn and spend” community in which users earn “cash” online, for example by visiting a portal site. The earnings can then be used to make online purchases, such as software.
Again, although the '210 patent and the CyberGold web site describe an incentive system that allows users to purchase products or services over the Internet, neither teaches the ability of the redeeming frequent flyer miles from a pre-existing account for reward points.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,372, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTRATION OF INCENTIVE AWARD PROGRAM THROUGH USE OF CREDIT, issued on Jun. 18, 1991 to Meridian Enterprises, Inc. The '372 patent describes an incentive award program in which credit is awarded to participants based on the participant meeting a designated level of performance under the system. This patent does not teach the ability to increase the reward points in a user's account by redeeming points from a pre-existing account such as a frequent flyer mileage program.
With regard to FIG. 1, a model of the frequent flyer systems of the prior art is presented. Two different airlines servers are shown surrounded by their related marketing partners, the first grouping labeled Airline 1 100 and the second independently operated but functionally similar grouping labeled Airline 2 200. In order to lure more business travelers, the airlines 100, 200 have established marketing agreements with travel related companies to provide the business traveler with a more robust way to generate rewards in the form of frequent flyer miles. These marketing arrangements or associations have typically involved credit card companies, phone companies, hotel chains and car rental companies. Any purchases made through these “co-branded” partners were then awarded to the user periodically. Bonus miles or points may additionally be accumulated based on the user's actions in response to offers made by the airline or in coordination with the partner company. For example, phone companies offer bonus miles to users based on the user's agreement to change phone service. These points are obtained by the partner companies by purchasing them from the issuing entity for redistribution as an incentive to utilize their particular goods and/or services. FIG. 2 shows some sample co-branded cards that are representative of marketing agreements between TWA, Sprint, and Mastercard. In order to receive these benefits, the user must sign up with each of the partner companies separately and provide the frequent flyer account number that is to receive the credited miles. A user either making phone calls or purchases in accordance with the agreements made with each of these partners will first accumulate a value on the partner's system which in turn is periodically updated on the issuer's reward server to reflect the value earned during that period. FIG. 3 is representative of a typical user account that shows various earnings in the system transferred in from any of the co-branded partners. The records of the table in FIG. 3 identify the source of the rewards, the dates they were recorded and the number of miles associated with that transaction. The user can view the accumulated miles by accessing the issuer's reward server or by tracking the individual value reported to the user through the various bills the user receives from each of the co-branded partners.
The prior art does not provide for a consumer to utilize relatively small amounts of reward points in any manner. In addition, a consumer often can only redeem points in an airline-related manner (i.e. to obtain a free ticket or upgrade from coach to first class). This prior art does not recognize the need for a consumer to exchange reward points for non-travel related goods, and in particular renders relatively small numbers of points useless. For example, a consumer that does not travel often may have 500 points in United Airlines, 700 points in USAir, and 1000 points in TWA, each of which is relatively useless in the prior art.
What is desired therefore is a system where users may submit frequent flyer awards, reward points or other credits accumulated for other types of transactions for redemption or translation into a form readily acceptable by a participating merchant. An exchange rate will be established for the relative consideration received by the companies involved in the transaction. A user should be able to pool, trade or aggregate the various earned rewards that may exist in currently separate reward server systems where the resulting combined value may be used by a user of the system to acquire items of equivalent or relative value. In another embodiment, the award program looking to reduce frequent flyer liabilities or exchange redemption opportunities to increase customer satisfaction may contact users (or be contacted by other members of the system) and arrange for a transfer of the reward points into a value (which may be predetermined) to be credited to the trading system reward account. Alternatively, the points may be used in an auction environment where points may be used to bid for certain awards, products, services, or points from other programs. A user can utilize points to bid for products or use value to bid for points. Groups of bidders may pool points together for purchases or donations. A user who has earned frequent flyer miles or rewards from several points issuers that, individually, may be insufficient to receive any direct value for their mileage may be able to pool the miles acquired from several different points issuers to transfer the awards accumulated to the trading system of this invention. The user may have the selected items delivered by performing a purchase request by various means such as over the Internet, dialing a toll free number for placing an order, or any other means of placing an order that will accept payment from this system.
It is further desired to provide a system and method that enables product providers such as manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and/or liquidators to liquidate their products through a liquidation service run by a transacting entity such as a liquidation broker, which will accept reward points directly or indirectly from a user as consideration (in whole or in part) for obtaining the product.
It is also desired to provide a system and method for users to purchase, sell, or trade in points or blocks of points or value, wherein the value and/or cost of the points is a function of the open marketplace or the performance or desire of the issuing, trading, selling purchasing or redeeming entity, either presently or at some time in the future. This would allow users to obtain points in the present time based on either the present or the future performance of the issuer.